Part of the Government’s priority to make social media safer by design includes cracking down on features that keep users scrolling endlessly, clicking, and coming back for more and platforms may be required to raise their minimum age beyond the current industry standard of 13.
“These features are hard enough for adults to resist – for teenagers, the risks are greater,” said Prime Minister Lawrence Wong during his National Day Rally speech on Aug 23.
He added that the Government will require stronger safeguards to be built in for young users, if each platform wants to serve the youth in Singapore.
“If its safeguards remain inadequate, we will consider additional restrictions – including raising the minimum age for access to that platform beyond 13.”
PM Wong was speaking on the importance of anticipating risks and having appropriate safeguards for new technologies that emerge, drawing parallels between social media and the developments of artificial intelligence.
Social media held much promise when it first emerged, creating new opportunities and connecting friends and families online. But its downsides became clear over time, said PM Wong.
“Today, one in six young people aged 10 to 24 in Singapore show signs of problematic social media use,” he said, citing statistics from a 2023 study by the National Council of Social Service.
“For some, the problem can be severe – they spend six or seven hours a day on social media, sometimes till the wee hours of the morning.”
Children and teenagers are particularly vulnerable as their brains are still developing, are more susceptible to social pressures, and are more easily hooked by features designed to keep them constantly engaged, said PM Wong.
To protect children below the age of 13, social media firms will also be required to put in place robust and reliable methods to check a user’s age, so as to enforce minimum age requirements.
“On paper, most social media platforms already set a minimum age of 13 – but enforcement is largely left to platforms themselves,” said PM Wong, adding that most rely on users to declare their own ages.
“We know that this is not working well. When I visit primary schools, I am struck by how many children are already active on social media... Self-declaration is just not good enough.”
More details on the requirements for social media firms will be revealed in the coming days, said Minister for Digital Development and Information Josephine Teo in a Facebook post on Aug 23.
She said that the Government recognises that children at different developmental stages need different levels of protection, while acknowledging the key role that parents play in nurturing healthy digital habits.
Said Teo: “There is no single solution that can address every risk. What matters is putting in place a set of practical, age-appropriate protections, while continuing to support parents and youth in the online world.”
The new measures come on the back of a report published in July by an expert panel, which was formed by the Ministry of Health to examine the impact of social media use on young people’s mental health.
It recommended tackling problematic features such as infinite scroll and autoplay functions, which encourage young users to remain engaged for longer than they intended.
Other features of concern identified include algorithmically curated feeds that could amplify exposure to distressing or harmful content, and social feedback mechanisms such as visible “like” counts that encourage social comparison and validation-seeking.
Experts also recommended against implementing a blanket age-based ban across all social media platforms, which has been proposed or codified into law in other jurisdictions such as Australia, the United Kingdom, Malaysia and Indonesia.
While PM Wong did not specify how robust age checks can be implemented by social media firms, app stores operating in Singapore have already begun doing so to prevent users under the age of 18 from downloading inappropriate apps.
This includes checking government-issued identity documents or credit card information, scanning faces, or analysing online usage patterns.
Singapore’s approach to technological change remains consistent regardless of the field that it is in – whether it is in business, healthcare, transport or social media, said PM Wong.
He added: “We will seize the opportunities; we will manage the disruption. And where there are real risks to our people and society, we will put safeguards in place.” THE STRAITS TIMES
